Interesting Posts and Articles #230

1. Bad for Shidduchim doesn't like the term shidduch resume. Bad PR for the Hebrews. Also:
   

   Shidduch resumes… I decided not to touch those. “Shidduch resume” is the sort of cynical nickname that people would give when they are gently mocking their own practice. But it sounds perfectly awful and I refuse to call them by that. Profile, people, it’s a profile!

   The definition of resume: “A résumé is a document that contains a summary or listing of relevant job experience and education.”

   But I heard the term early on, and it wasn't just cynical people who referred to it as this, to give a sense of what sort of document it would be. And also, we have Random House Dictionary give as the first definition:
   

   a summing up; summary.

   And the meanings of words change. I personally don't see this as a big deal.
   
   It would be interesting to see a "shidduch resume" with a summary of past girlfriends/boyfriends, with a description of how serious it was, what sort of things were done on dates (museums, bowling, dinner and a movie, etc.).
   
   Anyway, this is not only confined to the frum Jewish world. Google "dating resume" and note all the hits.
   
   
2. HaEmtza on sinas chinam, and whether it is a motivating factor for questioning why Lubavitch makes it not just a petur but a lechatchila to not sleep in the Succah.
   
   
3. Wolfish Musings contemplates the heavy cost of high school tuition, and has rational fears.
   
   
4. On the Main Line has Rav Yonasan Eibeshutz's comments on Wessely.
   
   
5. Will a giant crack in Africa create a new ocean? It seems so, given enough time.
   
   
6. Ishim veShitot on what was considered heresy in Slabodka yeshiva:
   

   At the time of my father's boyhood, the Haskalah movement had already commenced to penetrate the walls of the ultra-Orthodox Yeshiva where even the study of the Prophets were prohibited. My father often related how he and other students would keep the Tanach hidden within the Talmud volume from prying eyes of their teachers in order to study this literature clandestinely. To read Isaiah or Jeremiah with the Malbim commentarywas blasphemy.
   
   and further:
   
   "Students at the Yeshiva would forego many a meal, made available to them by generous families to whom serving meals to Yeshiva students was considered a great privilege or mitzva, to take special lessons in modern Hebrew and grammar from dedicated young men. This was particularly prohibited"

   He thinks it odd. But if it is correct, it may serve as a reminder that a particular yeshiva's approach and limits do not necessarily define the Torah-true approach, to the exclusion of all else.
   
   
7. HaEmtza on the phenomenon of going off the derech as caused in some instances by learning disabilities.
   

   He was forced to sit in front of his homework hour after hour every night until his bedtime. He had tutor after tutor. Nothing worked. His parents became harsher and harsher – accusing their son of being lazy.
   
   Long story short – his friends ostracized him and his teachers abandoned him. By the time he was in high school - public high school - he was OTD and into drugs and wild parties. Eventually he moved to Israel just to get away from all of his problems. But there he went from bad to worse.
   
   Fortunately for him a Charedi Kiruv group found him at his nadir and brought him back. Today he is fully integrated into the Frum community, married, – and has a great job.

8. At Hirhurim, Rabbi Ari Enkin on the halachics of saying a bracha on seeing thunder or lightning.
   
   
9. Rationalist Judaism posts an image of a new ban on certain color stockings, or stockings which are transparent to a specific degree. This is an old dispute, and we have Rav Moshe Feinstein, among others, upon whom to rely.
   
   
10. DovBear on Ralbag's position that it was the city, rather than the wife, who the pasuk describes as turning into a pillar of salt.
    
    
11. YU's Center for the Jewish Future is looking for input on the idea of creating a Kollel Boker at YU. You can take their survey here.
    
    
12. Here at parshablog, see my Vayera parshablog post roundup (so far); and in particular, whether Avraham acted appropriately in washing the malachim's feet first.